Hezbollah supporters wave flags before Nasrallah speech.
Lebanese born Texan accused of Hezbollah membership
Texas man who worked with US army in Iraq arrested for ties to Lebanese terror groups after wife says he admitted to killing Israeli pilot, told her he spent time in Israeli jail; man to face trial for lying to army, concealing past during naturalization process.
A Texas man has been arrested and accused of having previous membership to Hezbollah and other terror organizations in Lebanon before his immigration to the United States after his ex-wife told authorities he admitted to serving time in Israeli jail and killing an Israeli pilot, according to a report by the San Antonio Express.
Wissam Allouche, who was reported to security officially by his ex-wife and ex-father in law, has also been accused of falsely claiming he was US Special Forces during visits to any army base and attempting to sleep with women at the post in order to gain sensitive information.
Crowd awaits speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. (Photo: Reuters)
Allouche was arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force last week after he was indicted for not disclosing his membership in the Amal militia and Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s during his process to obtain US citizenship.
Allouche is also being charged with not disclosing his ties to the terror groups when he applied for security clearance with the US Defense Department for a contracting job, according to the report by the San Antonio Express.
Prior to 2009, Allouche worked for a private company, L-3 Communications, which provides linguistic services for the US military. Allouche was deployed to Iraq for several months as part of his role in the company.
Allouche has lived in the US since 2002, after he married an army officer in Germany, Jennifer R. Allouche, who reportedly helped get Allouche the job at L-3 Communications.
The two met in 1999 and were divorced 14 years later in 2009 – a few months after Allouche became a naturalized US citizen.
Allouche's ex-wife and family claim that Allouche told the family that he had served time in Israeli jail and pummeled to death an Israeli pilot. The family's allegations caused counter-terrorism agents to launch a probe into the allegations in 2009, and Allouche was put on the terror watch list.
A joint terrorism task force has been investigating Allouche for more than three years, using an undercover agent to record conversations with him, according to authorities. The FBI raided his then-home in Universal City in 2011, and said they found documents he had fabricated to show he had security clearances, membership in US Special Forces and Defense Department intelligence units, according to the report by the San Antonio Express.
Prosecutor Mark Roomberg toold US Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad that Allouche had admitted he was a member of Amala and a commander of Hezbollah. The judge agreed to keep Allouche behind bars pending trial.
Roomberg also claimed Allouche admitted “sodomizing and murdering an Israeli POW," according to the San Antonio Express report.
Allouche entered a not guilty plea to the charges, and his lawyer, Cynthia Orr, challenged the government's portrayal of her client.
Much of “the evidence comes from his disgruntled ex-wife and his disgruntled ex-father-in-law,” Orr told Judge Bemporad. Orr argued Allouche's past did not become an issue until after his divorce from his wife.
Army Criminal Investigations agent Jeff Cram, a member of the Joint Terrorism task force, testified that an investigation revealed Allouche's ties. And, Cram said, Allouche was seen by at least two people at Fort Sam dressed in US military uniform displaying insignias from special forces, according to the San Antonio Express report.
Allouche was also accused of boasting to women on the base that he was Special Forces, according to Cram, but Allouche's defense said that it was simply flirtation. Meanwhile, the prosecution has argued that Allouche was trying to lay a "honey pot" or "honey trap," which involves recruiting someone into espionage through a romantic relationship.
Cram also testified the task force received eight photos from a source showing Allouche during his days with Amal and Hezbollah in which he is seen holding assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades.
“He was given at least three aliases,” Cram testified.
One meant “god of death,” Cram said, adding that he was known for “acting crazy or acting dangerously.”
If convicted, Allouche could face up to 10 years in prison for lying on his naturalization form and up to 5 years for lying on security-clearance forms.
